Cowboys Like Us (23 page)

Until she went shopping she’d have to make do with the dress she had, but she longed for fresh underwear after that nice bath. Finally she decided to rinse out her panties and dry them with the hair dryer. She could skip the bra. After all, she was in Vegas, as Noah’s friends had pointed out more than once.

She touched up her makeup with supplies she kept in her purse, put on her slightly damp panties and pulled her dress over her head. Then she released her hair from its topknot and finger-combed it into place. Time to go find the Romeo of the Rodeo Circuit.

S
HE’D ENDED UP NAKED
in the closet, after all, Noah thought as he stood in the tux-rental shop and buttoned the vest he’d be wearing as a groomsman. Now all he could think about was
how she’d looked. He should have guessed she’d be in there putting on her raspberry lotion.

When he’d opened the closet door he’d been hit with a double whammy, a naked Keely and the overwhelming scent of raspberries. How he’d managed to close the door and walk out of the bedroom as if he were a sane person, he’d never know. He could still see her there in the dusky interior of that closet, smiling at him and wiggling her fingers in greeting.

She was a devil woman. And she wanted to tempt him the way she’d tempted others before him, but it wasn’t going to work, damn it. Somewhere he’d find the strength to resist and demonstrate to her that at least one man valued her for something besides sex. He would show her there was another path she could take and that her spectacular body didn’t have to dictate her future.

But he’d have to be careful. He’d nearly cracked when she’d dropped that towel. If he were completely honest with himself, she’d been the one to call a halt, not him. If she’d given him even the slightest encouragement, he would have aborted his plan and been all over her. He knew it and he suspected she knew it, too.

That damn raspberry lotion wasn’t helping, either. He couldn’t very well tell her not to use it if that’s what she liked. And he wouldn’t want to be responsible for the dry air damaging that soft skin. That satiny, golden, sweetly freckled…

“Yo, Garfield!” Brandon clapped him on the back. “Just two more buttons and you’ll have that vest together. Work with me, man. Button, buttonhole. That’s it. I think you’ve got it now.”

Noah’s neck grew warm with embarrassment. No telling how long he’d been standing there staring off into space. “Can’t a guy take a moment?” he said. “These weddings are big medicine. I’ve got some deep thinking to do.”

Brandon laughed. “That sounds like my line. Anyway, you’ll have plenty of thinking time later, when we all have a beer in our hands. Right now we have to find out if your monkey suit fits. Here’s the coat.”

Noah stuck his arms in the coat Brandon held for him. “Why does everybody always get rigged up like this for weddings?” he asked.

“Because it gets the women hot,” Greg said as he adjusted the lapels of his coat. “Right, Brandon?”

“So I’ve heard.”

“It’s true.” Clint checked out his reflection in the three-way mirror. “Chicks can’t resist a guy in tie and tails.”

“If you say so. You all could pass for city slickers, if that’s what you’re after.” Noah grinned as he watched his three friends walk around in their rented finery. Looking at them now, nobody would guess that Clint and Brandon were two of the finest bareback riders in the country and that Greg could rope and tie a steer faster than almost anyone on the circuit.

Clint and Brandon were as close as brothers, but they’d never pass for biological brothers. Clint was tall and blond and Brandon was short and dark-haired. Greg, a freckle-faced redhead, had developed a slight beer belly now that he’d reached his thirties, but he was strong as an ox.

“I think I look like a high roller,” Greg said, sucking in his stomach. “Maybe this getup will convince somebody to give me a suite on your floor, Noah.”

“This from a guy who bombed out on nickel slots,” Clint said.

Immediately Greg wanted to debate the possibility of a system for playing slots. Noah tried to concentrate on the conversation, but Greg’s mention of the suite had derailed him. Once again all he could think about was Keely.

He could even smell raspberries. Amazing how a scent could stay with you like that, even when the source was…
Wait a minute. He turned toward the door of the tux shop and, sure enough, Keely had just walked inside.

She didn’t look at him. His heart raced as he wondered what she was up to. If she’d meant to blow his cover, she would have come right over and greeted him. Instead, she wandered around the shop gazing at the displays, while his three friends stared openmouthed at her.

He couldn’t blame them. With her tousled hair and short, flirty dress, she was a traffic stopper, all right.

The clerk hurried up to her. “May I help you with something?”

She turned her high-wattage smile on him. “I’m getting ideas.”

Noah would bet the ranch on that one.

The clerk nodded happily. “When is the happy occasion?”

Keely’s glance flicked ever-so-slightly in Noah’s direction. “Soon.” Then her attention swung back to Noah with more purpose. “And, you know, that’s quite a bit like what I had in mind, right there.”

Noah forced himself to breathe normally as she came toward him. He didn’t have to look to know that his buddies were watching intently.

Her green eyes held that sparkle of devilment that was pure Keely. “
Very
nice,” she said, giving him the once-over. “Would you turn around, please, so I can see how it looks in back?”

He really didn’t have a choice. He turned.

“Yes,” she murmured. “Exactly what I’m looking for.”

He faced her again and hoped the red in his face didn’t clash too much with the dove-gray coat. “I need to get changed.” He winced at the obvious catch in his voice.

“Thank you for letting me look.” The corners of her mouth tilted up. “The
key
is in the fit of the trousers, don’t you think?”

She was torturing him and she knew it. He heard muffled laughter coming from the back of the shop where his friends had gathered to observe the action. No doubt they thought he was being picked up, assuming he was willing to be picked up.

“We think of ourselves as the premier tux shop in town,” the clerk said, puffing out his chest with pride.

“And accessibility certainly is a
key
factor in that,” Keely said. “Accessibility and availability are the
keys
to success in any venture, in my opinion.”

“Absolutely,” agreed the clerk.

Noah was afraid he’d sweat through this outfit if he stood there much longer listening to her sexy comments. “If you’ll excuse me, I’ll go take this off,” he said.

“Now, there’s something else I need to know,” Keely said. “Do your dressing rooms have
keys?
”

Noah nearly came unglued. He couldn’t look at the clerk. “I’ll be in the back,” he said. And if Keely followed him into the dressing room and tried anything, he’d…well, he’d do something. He wasn’t sure what. At the moment the idea of Keely in the dressing room with him was causing a problem with the fit of his trousers, and he had to get away from her.

“I’ll bet that man is a
key
player in whatever he does,” she commented as he hurried toward the short hallway leading to the dressing rooms.

“I couldn’t tell you,” the clerk said. “Now, how many tuxedos will you be requiring for your event?”

Noah didn’t pause to hear her answer.

“Told you the monkey suit works,” Greg said in an undertone as Noah barreled past his friends without looking at them. Then all the guys just about killed themselves laughing.

Noah went into the dressing room where he’d left his clothes and closed the door firmly. Sure enough, there was a
lock and he twisted it shut. She was not going to seduce him in the tux-shop dressing room, damn it, not even if it would be about the most risky, exciting thing he’d ever experienced in his life. His fingers trembled as he started taking off the rental clothes.

A soft knock sounded at the door.

“Busy!” Noah called out.

Loud male laughter greeted his statement, along with various comments about his lack of sex drive.

He walked over and opened the door to find his friends grinning at him. “What you think was happening was not happening,” he said. More laughter.

“We know that,” Greg said with a chuckle. “The lady was trying to score, but nothing was happening. Garfield, have you lost your mind?”

“Or some other significant body part?” Clint added. “That woman was
hot,
and she was coming on to you, and you acted like some damn virgin!”

Brandon shook his head sadly. “This is not the Noah Garfield we’ve come to admire.”

“She’s nuts, is what she is,” Noah said. “Did you hear her? She wanted to know if the dressing rooms had
keys,
for crying out loud.”

“Yeah, she sure did.” Greg sighed and looked longingly into the distance. “A woman with imagination is a beautiful thing. In one of these dressing rooms you could have three-way-mirror sex, not to mention sex in a forbidden place.”

“These monkey suits are dynamite.” Clint said. “She was pulled right in, and what a catch! I’ll bet she’s a dancer.” He waggled his eyebrows. “You know, a
dancer?
”

“And she picked you right out, bro,” Brandon said. “Did you hear her say she thinks you’re a
key
player?”

And finally Noah got it. Keely wasn’t here to sneak into
a dressing room with him and have three-way-mirror sex. He felt almost sad that her motivation hadn’t been naughty, after all. She’d been trying to tell him she needed the extra key. Apparently, in his agitation, he’d left the suite with both of them.

She probably needed some money, too, if she planned to do a little shopping this afternoon. He’d left her pretty much high and dry up there. Well, high, anyway. Nothing was dry about that suite.

Greg peered around the corner into the shop. “She’s still out there. You might be able to salvage this situation if you go talk to her.”

“Okay, I’ll get dressed and go talk to her,” Noah said. “But I’m not having sex in one of these dressing rooms, and that’s final.”

K
EELY WASN’T SURE WHETHER
or not all her signals about keys would get through Noah’s sexual fog. No matter how many times she vowed not to tease him, she continued to do it. He was such a delicious target, and each time she scored a hit, the painful memory of his rejection all those years ago faded a little more. She’d give anything for a snapshot of his face when she’d asked if the dressing rooms had keys.

Another of her features for
Attitude!
had dealt with unusual places to have sex, and dressing rooms had been one of them. She’d never personally tried it, though. In fact, she hadn’t personally tried many of the adventures she wrote about in the magazine. This weekend seemed tailor-made for those kinds of adventures.

Getting a glimpse of Noah in a tux had doubled her determination. What a babe magnet. With those baby browns of his and that killer physique, he could well have left a trail of broken hearts on the rodeo circuit. But now he was stuck in Saguaro Junction, and she knew from experience that the action was skimpy around those parts. She’d give him a vacation from the deadly-dull social life of a small town.

But she really needed the extra suite key in order to keep this operation smooth. If Noah took off with his buddies before slipping her the key, she might have to try something
more blatant. She didn’t want him leaving for the evening while she was locked out. Yes, she could always go back to her own hotel if necessary, but it wasn’t exactly next door.

As she continued to talk to the clerk about her imaginary “big event,” she heard laughter from the dressing-room area and figured Noah’s buddies were giving him a hard time. Those guys were a kick, a goofy bunch she’d like to make friends with if the situation were different. She’d matched up the voices with the bodies, so she’d pretty much tagged each one of them.

Greg was the redhead with the cute little belly. The tall blonde with the all-American good looks had to be Clint, and then there was Brandon the bridegroom—short, dark and adorable. Too bad his life would be over in a couple of days, once he’d tied the knot.

Both Clint and Greg already wore wedding rings. Poor guys. This bachelor party might be their only chance to break away from the tedium of their constricted lives. No wonder they wanted dancing girls tonight and hoped Noah would act out their fantasies this weekend.

And speaking of the fantasy man, he was strolling out of the dressing room, his arms full of rental clothes. He handed the stuff to the clerk who took it toward the counter, then headed in her direction. Thank goodness. He’d figured out her code.

“Nice to see you again, cowboy,” she said.

“Sorry to be so dense.” He held out his hand. “Here,” he said, keeping his hand closed over the key. “The guys think you’re propositioning me, by the way.”

“I am.” She took what was in his hand and realized money had been folded around the key. “You don’t have to give me this.” She slipped the key into her purse and tried to give him back the money.

“You need some clothes, right? For God’s sake, put that
away. And don’t move to the right or left. If you stay right where you are, I’m blocking their view of you, so they won’t see what we’re doing.”

“Really?” She lifted both eyebrows and ran her tongue over her lips. “So what do you wanna do?”

His mouth twitched, as if he might be holding back a laugh. “Nothing, okay?” he said in a low voice. “Now get rid of that money.”

“All right.” She tucked the money down the front of her dress. Fortunately, the lace-up bodice gave her some cleavage, even without wearing a bra. The gesture would have lost impact if the bills had fallen through her dress to the floor.

“Keely.”

“Noah, you’re so funny. From what I heard, your rep could use some polishing. This little conversation we’re having could do your image a world of good if you put the right spin on it. In fact, I don’t know why we’re keeping secrets from these guys. They seem like an open-minded bunch to me.”

“I can tell you where their minds are. Listen, they want to come up to the suite after the bachelor party tonight. I didn’t know how to tell them they couldn’t, but I’ll have to figure out some way to keep them from doing that. You can’t very well spend the night in the closet.”

“Oh, I don’t know.” She winked at him. “I had a good time in there.”

His face reddened.

“But I have to admit that after a while it did get pretty hot.”

“Keely, is it possible for you to talk about something besides sex?”

“Sure, but what fun is that?” She chuckled at his pained expression. “Look, why don’t we just tell your friends that you’re being a good Samaritan and helping me find a new and less interesting career?”

“Because they wouldn’t believe it. If they knew you were
staying with me, they’d leap to one conclusion and one conclusion only. We’d never be able to convince them otherwise.”

“Would that be so terrible? Apparently you’re no stranger to the wild-weekend concept.”

He frowned. “So you heard all that.”

“Clear as a bell.”

“I want you to know I cared about those women. It wasn’t the way they made it sound.”

She would rather have heard that the women meant nothing to him. “Noah, I’m the last person in the world who would judge you for enjoying a little healthy sex. And your friends won’t, either.”

His frown deepened. “I don’t want them thinking that about you.”

“Why not?”

“Because…because we grew up together, damn it, and I don’t like it when guys think those things about you.”

“Noah, what they’re thinking, that I’d be fun in bed, has some basis in fact. I’m not that kid you grew up with. Not anymore.”

He flushed an even darker color of red. “I don’t care,” he said, sounding a bit like a kid himself. “Nothing’s going to happen between us.”

She chose to let her smile answer that one.

“It’s not! I forgot myself a couple of times, but I won’t forget myself again.”

“If you say so.” She continued to smile at him.

“I do, and that’s that.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “I’m going to find some way to keep the guys from coming up to the suite tonight. I don’t know how, but I’ll think of something. Now, please go buy some clothes. And work on your résumé. Tonight we’ll go over it and come up with some ideas.”

“Sounds promising.”

He blew out a breath in obvious exasperation. “You don’t think I can pull this off, do you?”

She managed to control a burst of laughter. “What an interesting, and very Freudian, choice of words.” She drew a slow circle on his arm with one finger and watched the material of his shirt quiver as the muscles in his forearm bunched. “Forgive me for not understanding why you can’t give me job counseling
and
a really good time in that suite. I’m not your sister, Noah. I never was.” She looked up at him, enjoying the darkening storm in his eyes. “So why does it have to be black and white, either-or?”

He opened his mouth as if to answer her, then hesitated, apparently reconsidering what he’d been about to say. “Because we need to focus on your job situation,” he finally muttered.

She didn’t think that was all of it. “You’ve never heard of multitasking?”

“I—”

“Or could it be that you’re a coward?” she murmured.

“What do I have to be afraid of?”

“Letting go. Letting go of your old image of me, letting go of your old image of yourself.”

“That’s ridiculous.”

“You’re right,” she said. “Absolutely ridiculous. Well, I must be off. I really do need to buy clothes, especially underwear. I realized when I started to dress to come down here that I didn’t have anything clean, and I really hate to put on previously worn underwear after a bath.”

His attention drifted to her breasts and he swallowed. “So what did you do?”

“I’ll bet you can tell if you look closely. It’s cool in this shop, which is making my nipples—”

“I can see that.” He sounded hoarse. Slowly his gaze lifted
to her face. “Are you—” He cleared his throat. “Are you telling me you don’t have anything on under that dress?”

“I’ll let you figure that out. See you around, cowboy.” She turned and sashayed out of the shop, giving her hips an extra twitch because she knew he was watching the movement of her skirt and picturing her naked under it. And if she knew men at all, he was drooling.

She thought he might as well give in now, because the outcome of this weekend was a foregone conclusion. But he was a stubborn sort and it looked as if he had quite a bit more fight left in him. Come to think of it, she was enjoying the challenge. His resistance would make his final surrender that much sweeter.

In the meantime, she’d look for a few outfits that would guarantee success. Before she left for Reno Monday morning she’d return Noah’s money, but in the meantime she’d pretend to use it to buy new clothes.

Spying a racy-lingerie shop, she headed for it. Between shopping for clothes and interviewing Suzanne and Joy over at the topless bar tonight, she’d be a busy lady. And then there was the cliff-diving show. She didn’t want to leave the Tahitian without seeing that at least once. Considering that the weekend could get a tad complicated, she should probably try to see the cliff divers tonight before Noah returned.

M
ANY HOURS LATER
N
OAH
headed back to the hotel on foot with his three friends and several of the male wedding guests. They were a happy, slightly drunk bunch of guys, with the exception of Noah. He’d gone easy on the beer, knowing he had some tricky maneuvers ahead of him.

First of all he had to convince his buddies not to turn his suite into party central without offending them. Assuming he accomplished that, he had to spend the night with Keely
without making love to her. That feat alone required him to stay stone-cold sober.

For about the millionth time, their last conversation played in his head. When she’d asked him why sex couldn’t be a part of this weekend, he’d come close to giving his whiteknight speech, the one in which he promised to show her that at least one man on the planet wasn’t after her body. Maybe that would boost her self-esteem enough that she’d have the courage to try a career that didn’t depend on sex appeal.

But he wasn’t sure how she’d take that kind of statement. After all, he was implying that she was too insecure to consider any job that didn’t trade on her physical attributes. He hadn’t wanted to take a chance on insulting her when they’d have no chance to talk it out. Besides, she’d probably laugh at him. So far he’d done a damn poor job of ignoring her body.

He planned to improve for her sake. Of course it was for her sake. Her suggestion that he was a coward, that he was afraid of letting go, of admitting that she was a desirable woman, was pure hogwash. He was perfectly capable of letting go with her or any woman and then getting control of himself again. On the rodeo circuit he’d proved that more than once.

But he’d never really tested himself with Keely. A part of him didn’t want to know that she was a spectacular lover. Childhood friends weren’t supposed to turn into spectacular lovers, especially when they were as far out of reach as Keely.

As the men navigated the busy sidewalk along the Strip, most everyone in the group was singing, or trying to sing “Let Me Entertain You” from
Gypsy.
Apparently the topless dancers had inspired them. They could afford to be inspired, Noah thought. Not a one of them had the sexual challenge that waited for him once he was alone again with Keely.

He’d never been so sexually frustrated in his life, or so unlikely to have that frustration eased soon, unless he wanted
to abandon his principles. None of the strippers at the bar had been half as beautiful as Keely, but they’d kept his mind firmly on the subject of sex with every bump and grind.

Brandon slung a friendly arm around Noah’s neck. “Hey, you bull-riding son of a gun. I’m glad you could tear yourself away from that ranch long enough to see me get hitched. I know how much that place means to you and how you hate to leave it.”

Noah grinned at him. “Anything for you.” Brandon was about as plowed as a bridegroom should be on the night before his wedding, Noah decided. He was plenty loose, but not falling-down drunk.

“Y’know that plan we had, all of us goin’ up to your place for the rest of the evening?”

“Yeah,” Noah said. “And the thing is—”

“I know what the thing is,” Brandon said with a chuckle. “We all do. We were gonna pretend we were goin’ up there so we could watch you squirm, but back at the bar we had a confab and decided not to torture you. So relax. We’ll close out the night in the bird bar so you can have a little R and R upstairs.”

Noah stared at him. “I don’t have the foggiest idea what you’re talking about.”

Brandon smiled. “The woman in the tux shop, buddy. That’s what I’m talkin’ about.”

“I told her I wasn’t interested.” Which, in a manner of speaking, was true.

“Uh-huh. And that’s why you gave her a key? And money?”

“What makes you think I did that?” He was sure he’d blocked their view of the transaction with his body.

“There’s this cute little security camera in the shop. We watched the action on the monitor.”

Noah groaned.

“And we’re happy for you, buddy. You’re carrying on the tradition for those of us who are no longer able. Way to go, bro.” He gave Noah’s neck a squeeze and released him.

“Brandon, listen, I—”

“Enjoy the bachelor life while you can, Noah, old pal.” With a wink, Brandon turned away and made a megaphone of his hands. “Hey, you guys!” he shouted. “If we get a move on, we can make it for the last cliff-diving show of the night!”

Noah sighed. He hadn’t a clue how to respond. Nobody who saw him give a key and money to a woman who looked like Keely would believe that was an innocent arrangement. But it would be, damn it. And somehow he’d find a way to explain that to the guys. But he might as well forget trying until tomorrow.

“Yeah, come on.” Greg flicked an imaginary rope over the group. “Get along, little doggies. Let’s go see the diving.”